In a recent survey published by the American Psychological Association, 60 percent of survey respondents said that work was their main source of stress. Stress, the report revealed, is the culprit behind many commonly experienced symptoms such as insomnia, irritability and anxiety. Stress also leads to unhealthy coping behaviors such as smoking, overeating or spending too much time watching television or surfing the Internet. As such, stress is a leading cause of absenteeism and lost productivity at work.

For these reasons, it is important to find a communications solution that will break the cycle of workplace stress, create a healthy corporate culture and take unnecessary pressure off employees. Luckily, advanced telephony solutions like unified communications (UC) can help offset the negative effects of stress.  The stress-busting benefits of UC include:

Remote connection

When UC is used with mobile clients, employees can work productively from anywhere, whether they are in a satellite office, at a conference, with a client or vendor, making a sales call or telecommuting for better work-life balance. With UC, workers never have to stress over missing calls, messages, or meetings.

Better relationships

UC can help colleagues communicate with each other more seamlessly and clearly, whether they share office space or are several time zones apart. Making UC part of your telephony system creates more collaborative and productive working relationships, which helps ease stress.

Control over communications

A lack of control over communications methods is a major source of employee stress. UC offers a robust suite of options for communicating, so employees can choose those that best suit their personality, project, job and goals. Employees can feel more in charge of the ways they communicate with UC, whether they prefer instant messaging or Web conferencing.

UC can streamline and ease communications across the workplace, providing a more collaborative, supportive and low-stress environment for all.